SCIENCE

Wins Undergraduate Computational Engineering and Science Award at SC’10, the World’s Largest Supercomputing Conference

Stockton College's computational science program walked away with top honors at SC'10, the world's largest international supercomputing conference, Nov. 12 -17 in New Orleans.

A team of students and professors represented the program, which earned the 2010 Computational Engineering and Science Award, administered annually by the Krell Institute and funded by the United States Department of Energy. Dr. Russell Manson, associate professor of computational science and director of Stockton's computational science master's program, gave a presentation detailing the formation and evolution of the program and its curriculum. Dr. Monir Sharobeam, professor of computational science, and Dr. Robert Olsen, assistant professor of computational science were co-recipients with Dr. Manson.

"This is a great honor for Stockton, our School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and of course, the computational science dual-degree program," said Stockton Provost Dr. Harvey Kesselman. "Stockton has a long and proud tradition of graduating a large number of students in advanced scientific fields. This award is certainly validation of the great work of our students and faculty."

Students Michael Laielli of Brigantine, Richard Page of Manahawkin and Christine Harvey of Joppa, Maryland participated in a poster session. Both Laielli and Page will graduate next month as the College's first two bachelor's degree recipients in computational science. Page will continue on in the "4+1 dual degree" program, meaning he will earn his master's in the field with an additional year's studies at the graduate level.

"This award is national recognition of this innovative degree program," Dr. Sharobeam said. "We have participated (in the SC '10 Conference) for the past four years and this award is presented annually to faculty demonstrating leadership in the development of computational science curricula. Professor Manson gave a great presentation. The award comes at a perfect time with our first students graduating in December."

Students Laielli and Page are conducting research supported by the National Science Foundation and working closely with the Blue Waters Project, which is expected to produce the world's largest supercomputer in 2011. The Blue Waters supercomputer will have the ability to perform 10 quadrillion calculations per second. Laielli and Page's research involves petascale modeling on sediment transport. Through the use of these super-fast computers, scientists are able to work with massive datasets to create math models that describe scientific phenomena.

"The work we are doing in computational research is cutting edge," Dr. Kesselman said. "It is gratifying to see it receive such well-deserved national acclaim."